


Captivated: Island of the Sirens

by Anony_mouse3



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Gen, Multi, POV Annabeth, Sea Monsters, Short, percabeth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 09:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7528021
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anony_mouse3/pseuds/Anony_mouse3
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The encounter with the sirens from Sea of Monsters, in Annabeth's point of view.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captivated: Island of the Sirens

Just a few more strokes. That was all that mattered as I fought my way toward them. It was everything I'd ever dreamed of: my family, my architecture, and Luke. My Luke- not the one who'd almost sent Percy to Tartarus last summer, who'd summoned a Pit Spider from the Underworld to kill him after our first quest, and not the Luke who'd turned his back on me and left.

I could feel nothing. Nothing good, nothing bad, absolutely nothing at all. I couldn't think rationally; I just knew that I needed to reach them. I knew only that I wanted to swim until I met their outstretched arms. And those arms were more than ready to accept me. More than ready to finally take me home. It didn't matter that Percy was using all of his strength to keep me from them, and it didn't matter that I hated him for it. All that mattered was reaching them.

Then they started to fade away into the distance. I struggled hard to remain with them, but it was no use. The more I fought, the farther away I seemed to drift until at last, the currents finally pulled me under. They were gone, everything was gone, and suddenly the world was clear again. I could now recognize my need for oxygen, but upon reaching the surface, all Hades broke lose yet again. For the second time, I was overwhelmed by my desire to reach them; and then I felt something else. Percy was still trying to keep me away. Why is he trying to keep me from them? From everything I've ever wanted? I thought Percy was my friend. But he was relentless. Somehow, he'd managed to get an arm around my waist and again I found myself completely submerged and being pulled deeper into the bay by the second.

Logic made its way back into my head almost immediately as we left the surface behind. Just as I became certain that Percy had forgotten my inability to breathe underwater, hundreds of thousands of bubbles rose up towards us, enclosing us in an air pocket so large only our legs remained in the water. For a few seconds he just watched me as I coughed up the water I’d inhaled during the struggle, at last some of the fear in his eyes beginning to dissipate. 

As realization of the event finally dawned on me, I lost control. The worry returned fully to his face, but it was different this time. It wasn't so much a look of fearing for our lives, but one of understanding. I couldn't help it. I couldn't help the gut wrenching sobs and whimpers I was releasing into the small space of our bubble; it was all just too much. 

As soon as my head made contact with his chest, his arms were around me. They were warm, nothing like the freezing water we'd been pulled into, and I felt the comforting heat of them spread throughout my body nearly instantaneously. He held me tight, not the way he had when he'd been dragging me from the sirens, but as though he was trying to hold me together when I wasn't capable of doing so for myself.

Even after I was able to control my sobs, he still just held me silently. For a guy whose head I'm convinced is full of kelp at times, Percy has a way of knowing exactly what to do when it really counts. That's probably one of the things I like best about him. Come to think of it, there are a lot of things I like about Percy. As I mentioned before, he's warm; I'm not just talking about his body temperature either. His entire aura is just warm, warm like the blankets I used to curl up under as a kid to hide from the monsters I had yet to learn actually exist. Warm like the feeling of crossing the barrier into camp after a long winter. Warm like the sensation of sliding one of my favorite hoodies on over yet another tattered camp shirt. Warm like the flush that rises to his face when he's embarrassed. Warm like the sea. He was kind too, probably one of the kindest people I've ever met. Not to say that he doesn't defend himself when necessary, but he's never out to get anyone. He's also caring, so full of compassion that during times like this, he leaves me speechless at how I managed not to see it for so long. Percy Jackson is fiercely loyal; loyal to the point of self-sacrifice. No matter whom you are or what you've done, if you're someone he cares about, he'll stand by your side until the end of the world.

Last but not least, there are his eyes. His eyes hold it all, all of the warmth, kindness, love, and loyalty. They're the exact color of the sea, with equal parts blue and green. Their depth is another thing that reminds me of the sea, like someone could spend forever looking into them and still not see all they hold. He has friendly eyes, not like my stormy gray ones. Sometimes I find myself staring into them just a little too deeply, but he doesn't notice. And if he does, he doesn't seem to mind. I just can't bear to look away from them. Anyone who thinks Sirens, Scylla, and Charybdis to be dangers of the sea has obviously never looked into the eyes of Percy Jackson. They're captivating, forever puzzling me in the way they express even the things he can't put into words. At other times they just prove true the things he's already said, like the way they lighten when he talks about his mom and other things he loves, or the way they darken when he's determined or challenged. I guess I can just add them to the long list of things about Percy Jackson that baffle me.

Percy Jackson is a puzzle to me. How he can't stay mad. How in the midst of battle, he somehow always thinks of a plan just in time. How he forges such strong friendships with people he's known for such short amounts of time. How he went along with my stupid idea to listen to the sirens because he knew it was something I wanted. Or even how he risked himself and jumped into the sea to save me from the sirens. And now, how after all of the trauma he has been through, he just sits here holding me together.

I'm so focused on my own thoughts that I almost don't hear him the first time he speaks. "I'll get us back to the ship," he says quietly. "It's okay, just hang on."  
His arms still around me, I only nod. Then thinking again of all he has done for me in just the past few minutes, I whisper one last thing into his ear before we leave our underwater safe zone.

"Percy… Thanks for never leaving me." My voice cracks halfway through the sentence and he doesn't reply, which isn't surprising once I remember the wax, still protecting his ears from the siren songs. I assume we must have reached the boat in that time period, because the next thing I remember is Percy urging me up the rope ladder, now dangling from the side the Queen Anne's Revenge.

Percy had bee onboard for a grand total of maybe five seconds by the time he offered me a blanket. As we navigated away from the sirens’ territory, I couldn’t help but be jealous of the fact that as the son of the sea god, Percy had not gotten wet and therefore did not share my temperature induced misery. Once all signs of the island of the sirens had gone, I mouthed safe, and he finally removed the wax from his ears.

"You okay?" he questioned me, still looking a tad more than a little concerned. I’d wager he already knew the answer to that question and was just hoping to be wrong.

"I didn't realize," I mumbled, barely loud enough for his ears.

"What?"

"How powerful the temptation would be," I said, trying to keep the shame I felt out of my voice.

A string of about a hundred different emotions passed over his face before he finally admitted, "I saw the way you rebuilt Manhattan." After a moment's hesitation he added, "And Luke and your parents." I could already feel the blush rising to my cheeks.

"You saw that?"

"What Luke told you back on the Princess Andromeda, about starting the world from scratch… that really got to you, huh?" He questioned, trying not to meet my eyes, and I wrapped the blanket closer around me.

"My fatal flaw. That's what the sirens showed me. My fatal flaw is hubris."

A look of confusion swept across his face, "That brown stuff they spread on veggie sandwiches?" That time, I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"No, Seaweed Brain. That's hummus. Hubris is worse."

"What could be worse than hummus?" He pointed out, obviously an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Hubris means deadly pride, Percy. Thinking you can do things better than anyone else… even the gods."

"You feel that way?" he questions, finally making eye contact with me again, which immediately prompts me to direct my gaze at the ground.

"Don't you ever feel like, what if the world really is messed up? What if we could do it all over again from scratch? No more war. Nobody homeless. No more summer reading homework," I add in at the end in yet another attempt to lighten the mood.

"I'm listening."

"I mean, the West represents a lot of the best things mankind ever did- that's why the fire is still burning. That's why Olympus is still around. But sometimes you just see the bad stuff, you know? And you start thinking the way Luke does: 'If I could tear this all down, I would do it better.' Don't you ever feel that way? Like you could do a better job if you ran the world?" I ask him, trying to get my point across.

"Um… no. Me running the world would kind of be a nightmare," he admits, a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"Then you're lucky. Hubris isn't your fatal flaw." I point out.

"What is?"

I consider his question for a moment, "I don't know, Percy, but every hero has one. If you don't find it and learn to control it… well, they don't call it 'fatal' for nothing." It was quiet for a moment as we contemplated this.

"So was it worth it?" he asks, yet again trying to make eye contact. "Do you feel… wiser?" he adds, seeing my confusion with his previous question.

It takes me a moment to consider my answer as I stare into the distance. Was it worth it? Was it worth risking mine, and indirectly Percy's, life? Then again, knowing my fatal flaw could save lives later on. "I'm not sure. But we have to save the camp. If we don't stop Luke…"

Even a Seaweed Brain could see my point without me having to finish. If I, who had been at camp longer than almost anyone, could be tempted by the same ideas that had proven to be Luke's downfall, the very thought of those ideas invading camp seemed disastrous on their own.

The conversation over, it was once again quiet and I was left to ponder the thoughts that had occurred back at the island of the sirens. All of the things I had pointed out about Percy are true, it had just taken me sorting them out before I could recognize that. And now I definitely see it. Since the events last summer, it's felt like I lost my home the day I lost Luke, when really I had finally been forced to make room in my heart for a new one. Percy. As ignorant as he can be at times, Percy is the closest thing I've had to a family in a long time, maybe ever. The more I think about this new revelation, the more I realize that while Percy isn't a replacement for Luke, he's something entirely different.

Whereas Percy is selfless and loyal, Luke has always done things with the intention of putting himself first, even if it was just ever so slightly. One thing is for certain, Percy would never have let Thalia make her final stand on the edge of the barrier. He would have fought at her side until the very end. And I had been correct in saying that Percy's one fatal flaw was not Hubris. I'm now almost certain that it will prove to be his undying loyalty. And really, who can't begin to fall for a guy whose one flaw is that he would sacrifice everything just to save those he loves?

It's Percy… who saved me from hundreds of spiders in the tunnel of love, who swam halfway to the island of the sirens to save my life, who made me an air bubble underwater just so he could hold me in his arms, out of harm's way, while I broke down, who will never leave me, and who has saved my life so many times I've lost track. I should have known from the first time I looked into those sea green eyes that this is where I would end up: in love with a complete Seaweed Brain. I should have known from that moment onward that I would be trapped, completely and one hundred percent captivated by the son of the Sea God.

Finally, I could make out the shape of an island in the distance. I gave myself a final once over, one last check to ensure I’d recovered from the sirens. Then, as I shifted my gaze from the ground up to Percy's eyes, I watched them lighten to just a slightly brighter shade of the sea; so as it turns out, falling for the son of the Sea God may not be such a bad thing after all.

"Percy," I called just loudly enough for him to hear. We had reached the home of the Cyclops.


End file.
